Police on scene on Crescent Street after shooting.
A 49-year-old Uber driver was shot in the head on Crescent Street Monday afternoon.
Police, who are at the beginning stages of the investigation, do not at this point believe he was the intended target.
The shooting took place at 12:53 p.m.
At the time members of Friends of Beaver Pond Park were meeting in the park just off Crescent Street with students at the Yale School of the Environment for an orientation session, when they heard six to ten pops.
“We were hoping they were fireworks,” said one participant who was present.
They weren’t fireworks. Near Southern Connecticut State University, the Uber driver, who lives in Bridgeport, was hit by a passing bullet, grazed in the head, according to police. He kept driving, erratically, a few blocks on Crescent. Police flagged him down. He was bloodied; he explained he had been shot.
He was taken to the hospital. He is listed in stable condition.
The driver had a passenger, who was unhurt, according to police.
Police did not yet have other details to report mid-afternoon, including the driver’s age or any potential relevance of the passenger to the incident.
Retired police Sgt. Shafiq Abdussabur, who lives a block away and came to the scene, said the incident illustrates concerns he raised in a recent 10-point plan to tackle violence in Beaver Hills and citywide. He released the plan as part of his unopposed campaign to serve as the next Ward 28 alder.
He cited two planks in particular: “Install cameras in areas where shootings have occurred/have the potential occur, to include parks”; and “Prioritize traffic calming by installing speed bumps/humps/and electronic speed feedback signs.”
Other shootings have taken place near the one Monday on Crescent, a speedway which was recently repaved without speed humps and where no cameras record what happens, Abdussabur noted.
Monday afternoon’s shooting follows a busy weekend of gunfire in New Haven and southern Hamden. Two shootings took place within 24 hours in Hamden, including a homicide involving a New Haven man. Two separate non-fatal shootings occurred within blocks of each other in New Haven’s Hill neighborhood Saturday, at 5:43 p.m. and 8:03 p.m., one involving a 33-year-old male victim, the other a 34-year-old male victim, according to police spokesperson Officer Scott Shumway. A 33-year-old man was shot on George Street between Derby and Norton Friday at 3:55 p.m.; his injuries were also described as non-life-threatening.
Very sad indeed. That said, what though does the victim's being an Uber driver have anything to do with this?
All too often, food delivery folks get robbed. Occasionally they're also shot, carjacked or assaulted. The difference is robbers of delivery drivers are most often after the cash they know is on them. Uber driving is cashless.
I think, unless there is a known connection to the victim being shot because he was an Uber driver, adding that sensationalizes the story and nothin more.
[Paul: Thank you for the comment. If what the police initially believe turns out to be true, my thinking was that the randomness of it -- an Uber driver out on the job getting caught in the crossfire -- was relevant, and poignant, information. I thought that fact mattered. Didn't see it as sensationalistic. Yes deliver drivers get robbed often -- and I think that is newsworthy too. An important work/labor/public safety story. I also believe that more details help the public understand more about an incident.]